Power Adapter Error message & Battery Not charging!

I am having Inspiron-6400 (XP SP3) laptop. 2 years old. Suddenly I am getting the following message for the past two days:

"Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 65W AC adapter or higher for best system operation."

That error message comes when I plug in the AC adapter to go to AC from battery.

It results in Battery not charging. That is a big problem. The tray-icon just shows 'On AC Power' and the 'Charging' indication does not appear any more.

A related message is also seen when I reboot the laptop, at the start itself. That message adds a suggestion by saying 'Try to reseat the power adapter'. Reseating it does not help. Though, a couple of times it helped. So I am not sure what this mechanical / reseating thing has to do with this error.

Overall, it is frustrating. It will be great if someone can help me with the exact solution for this, other than going to Dell requesting for paid-service support.

Hi, I HAD/HAVE the same problem....My charger wouldn't be detected and an ALERT BOX would appear saying "AC Power adaptor not detected". But thanks to you, as someone mention here, i plugged in the power plug forcefully, and surprisingly it worked! I mean then ,the charger was plugged in, charging from plugged in, not charging. Thanks a lot....Although I do have to get a new charger eventually...What the DELL huh!

My original adapter failed within six months of buying my new Inspiron 15 in 2009. Unimpressed with Dell's quality, I bought a replacement adapter from another company, which worked fine for another 6 months. Then, I got this message... so I forked over the cash for a genuine Dell adapter from Dell's web site.

Now, I'm getting this message again, with my genuine Dell adapter. My computer doesn't travel much at this point, so I have a hard time believing it's wear and tear... and now I live in the UK, so have absolutely no idea where I can go for help. And, I basically know nothing about how to deal with computer issues on my own. I would really like to be able to use my battery, but obviously can't. Does anyone know where I can go for help? The last thing I want to do is sit on the phone for an hour long-distance with Dell's non-helpful people and pay through the nose for their 'services.'

Mine does that sometimes. I find that if I unplug from the mains and shut down, then restart on battery power, it suddenly thinks it is OK to charge the battery. Don't know why, but it has worked for me.

I have a Studio 1745 with the same error message saying my battery is not charging & I need to use a 90W battery charger plugged in. I remove the battery and the laptop works fine just using the charger asa the power source. I tested the battery and its in good conditionion(No LED's lit up when holding in the button on the battery.) Does still mean the laptops connector might still be bad?

I am having Inspiron-6400 (XP SP3) laptop. 2 years old. Suddenly I am getting the following message for the past two days:

"Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 65W AC adapter or higher for best system operation."

That error message comes when I plug in the AC adapter to go to AC from battery.

It results in Battery not charging. That is a big problem. The tray-icon just shows 'On AC Power' and the 'Charging' indication does not appear any more.

A related message is also seen when I reboot the laptop, at the start itself. That message adds a suggestion by saying 'Try to reseat the power adapter'. Reseating it does not help. Though, a couple of times it helped. So I am not sure what this mechanical / reseating thing has to do with this error.

Overall, it is frustrating. It will be great if someone can help me with the exact solution for this, other than going to Dell requesting for paid-service support.

I am having Inspiron-6400 (XP SP3) laptop. 2 years old. Suddenly I am getting the following message for the past two days:

"Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 65W AC adapter or higher for best system operation."

That error message comes when I plug in the AC adapter to go to AC from battery.

It results in Battery not charging. That is a big problem. The tray-icon just shows 'On AC Power' and the 'Charging' indication does not appear any more.

A related message is also seen when I reboot the laptop, at the start itself. That message adds a suggestion by saying 'Try to reseat the power adapter'. Reseating it does not help. Though, a couple of times it helped. So I am not sure what this mechanical / reseating thing has to do with this error.

Overall, it is frustrating. It will be great if someone can help me with the exact solution for this, other than going to Dell requesting for paid-service support.

This problem is caused by a broken wire that connects to the center pin of the DC power connector. Here is how the connector is setup:

The outside of the power connector is Ground, or minus connection. The inside of the connector is DC+ Plus 18 vdc. The center pin in the connector send a siginal to the laptop to turn on the charging circuit to charge the battery. Meanwhile the outside and inside of the power connector is supplying the voltage to run the laptop, but if the signal to the center pin is broken or the pin is broken it WON'T charge the battery. If you want to try to fix it you have to carefully take the power connector apart and check the white wire goint to the center pin. It could also be a loose connection at the power connection inside the laptop.

I have fixed a few laptops with this problem. If you don't want to go to all this trouble replace the power adaptor with a Rocketfish adaptor

I am having the same error message from my refurbished Dell Latitude D620 4 years later so obvious nothing has changed,do i throw my dell in the garbage can and buy something else ,??? or where do i purchase a external battery charger??

Thanks i guessed it may have the problem ,from the amount of posts relating to it ,have ordered a new charger ex E,BAY,also the supplier of the Laptop,will replace the charger foc ,will have to wait approx 2 weeks turnaround with no laptop,i cannot USE my new toy FOR 2 WEEKS!!!!!.Have also located external charger in the US for 70.00 AUS "ecrater.com".Ido think that perhaps after 4 years plus this problem could have and should have been resolved with our new age technoligy?.Perhaps by the Dell Company !!!! most chargers in the market place are DELL???

I have a new twist on this old problem, when plugged in my adapter to my XPS 17 the message will pop up, but the battery will still charge. Unfortunately for me, while the battery works and the charger works the frame rate of the game I am playing at the time drops to a tenth of what it is when unplugged. I have set the power plans on both settings to high performance and one would think that would equate to performance on the same level, but it doesn't.